Owner clears Jose Mourinho to choose weakened side as manager is charged by
the FA along with Rui Faria and Ramires following Sunderland defeat

Roman Abramovich has given his blessing to Jose Mourinho’s controversial plan to rest an entire XI in Chelsea’s showdown with Liverpool – even if it means surrendering the Premier League title.

Abramovich and his board will not prevent their manager making wholesale changes for the trip to Anfield on Sunday after Mourinho claimed that anything else would jeopardise the club’s hopes of reaching the Champions League final.

Mourinho risked outraging his rival managers – particularly Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini – by revealing on Tuesday night his desire not to start any of the same players at Liverpool as will feature in the semi-final second leg against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday.

His press conference after the first leg continued a week of contentious public statements which have led to his being charged last night with misconduct by the Football Association.

In what could prove a landmark case, the Portuguese was accused of calling into question the integrity of referee Mike Dean, as well as Mike Riley, the referees’ chief, after the explosive defeat against Sunderland on Saturday.

Mourinho used his post-match press conference to offer sarcastic “congratulations” to Dean and Riley, something viewed by the FA as a naked attempt to circumvent their rules on criticising officials.

Despite having been fined £8,000 twice this season – he is still challenging the second punishment – Mourinho is unlikely to be banned from the touchline if found guilty, with off-field offences usually sanctioned financially.

The same cannot be said for Mourinho’s assistant, Rui Faria, who was charged last night over his attempt to confront Dean following Sunderland’s controversial winning goal.

Faria was hit with two charges because he also had to be restrained by Mourinho after being ordered from the touchline. He is expected to be banned for several matches.

As is Ramires, the midfielder who was charged by the FA’s video review panel with striking Sebastian Larsson in the same game and faces a four-game suspension.

After a wave of disciplinary action against Chelsea in recent weeks, they can at least console themselves that they should avoid punishment if Mourinho carries out his threat to field a “weakened” side against Liverpool.

Three years ago, making such wholesale changes would have landed them with a five-figure fine but the Premier League amended its rules in the summer of 2011 following controversial punishments handed out to Blackpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Clubs are now at liberty to field anyone from their official 25-man squad list, in addition to some under-21 players.

There is no specific limit on how many youngsters clubs can start but the Premier League does have the power to fine them if it feels the integrity of the competition has been unduly compromised.

Even with injuries to Petr Cech and John Terry, Mourinho will be able to field 10 members of his 25-man Premier League squad on Sunday – along with one under-21 player – and still keep 11 back for Atlético.

While that would almost certainly not lead to any punishment, it could spark huge criticism and would doubtless infuriate City, who will be desperate for Chelsea to win at Anfield to resurrect their own title hopes.

Mourinho feels that such drastic action is justified by the Premier League’s refusal to switch the game on Sunday, a decision which infuriated both him and the club.

Chelsea made representations to have it moved upon reaching the Champions League semi-finals, something the Premier League would have done automatically had the second leg of that tie been on a Tuesday. Indeed, with the first leg falling on Tuesday, it switched the Sunderland match to a Saturday.

However, it would not budge over the Liverpool fixture once the second leg of the Atlético game was confirmed as being on a Wednesday, insisting the club were fully aware of its policy on rescheduling games at the start of the season.

That opinion is thought to be shared by Sky Sports, which will broadcast both the Liverpool-Chelsea and Chelsea-Atlético matches Any change to agreements between Premier League clubs and their broadcast partners could not be made until the current television deals expire in 2016.

Mourinho has long complained that clubs in Spain see fixtures rearranged all the time to give them the best chance of progressing in Europe.